John Austen

John Austen is a happily retired former senior official of Infrastructure Australia living in Western Sydney. Details are at thejadebeagle.com.

John's recent articles

JOHN AUSTEN More on the Sydney transport mess-the Western Sydney dud deal

Announcement of a Western Sydney city deal by the Prime Minister and Premier was touted as securing a rail line through Badgerys Creek airport.It does not.In fact, it merely committed to yet another review about what to do. That may turn out to be lucky for taxpayers and Sydney.

JOHN AUSTEN. Immigration and infrastructure.

While immigration - and a big Australia - is presented as the cause of infrastructure woe the real culprit is policy failure: deficient planning, bad structural arrangements and absence of road congestion pricing.

JOHN AUSTEN. We need a Metro public inquiry in NSW to sort out the railway mess

A recent opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Heaald effectively called for a stop to criticism of the NSW Governments approach to Sydney railways in particular Metro and for everyone to get onboard the transport revolution. I cant agree.

The roads club is having a great spend.

Overspending on roads may be already damaging national productivity as well as adding to debt burdens of future generations.

JOHN AUSTEN. NSW needs an inquiry into Sydney transport

A dreadful start to 2018 for Sydney transport made NSW Minister Constance the unwelcome centre of attention. The spotlight will turn to the Premier who was formerly the Minister for Transport.

JOHN AUSTEN. Newcastle port some progress in undoing a privatisation fiasco

Pressure is mounting to overcome the ridiculous anti-competitive constraints on Newcastle port.

JOHN AUSTEN. Roads another year of inaction and congestion-causing deficits

Spending on roads continues to vastly outstrip road revenues, increasing our national debt. This easy access to funding is why we spend too much on the wrong roads and has stopped road reform - as stated in a post in Pearls and Irritations last year: .

JOHN AUSTEN: What will it take to kick off a serious enquiry into the Sydney transport mess?

While readers relax over the Christmas break, Commonwealth advisers and politicians should be asking about the Sydney infrastructure mess.

JOHN AUSTEN. The NSW infrastructure mess keeps getting worse

This is an update on Sydneys infrastructure puff piece saga. Previous articles in Pearls and Irritations pointed out that the NSW Government led by the Hon. Gladys Berejiklian MP does not understand infrastructure. The draft 40-year plans for transport and for the Sydney region are a mess, involve kindergarten errors and contradict each other. It now looks like the wheels are falling off. The Commonwealth must step in if only for its own sake.

JOHN AUSTEN. Trouble in NSW infrastructure paradise, Part 2.

This is a second instalment about the onslaught of NSW infrastructure puff pieces.

JOHN AUSTEN. Trouble in infrastructure paradise, NSW Part 1 of 2

Sydney readers are being subjected to an onslaught of infrastructure puff pieces featuring former Transport Minister now Premier the Hon. Gladys Berejiklian MP.It coincides with a desire to showcase the Governments infrastructure credentials and raise the Premiers profile. It also coincides with big swings against her Government in by-elections. But the major projects currently underway in Sydney are characterised by poor planning and a failure to link key nodes, lack of cost control, and a loss of interoperability in the rail system. This is the first of two articles on the matter. The second will deal with the transport...

JOHN AUSTEN - Road pricing; an update

Reports about the Grattan Institutes assessment of Sydney and Melbourne traffic is the latest re-ignition of road pricing arguments. However, the risk that policy falls further into the hands of vested interests needs to be addressed. There is an urgent need for Commonwealth advisers to lift their game.

JOHN AUSTEN. Priorities for Infrastructure Australia.

The new Infrastructure Australia chair said the organisation is open to ideas and seeks priorities from the public. Sitting in the public gallery I suggest three priorities: (1)revisit some of its advice; (2) set out the Commonwealths role; and (3) become more independent. The aim is to improve its reputation as a Commonwealth adviser.

JOHN AUSTEN. Doubts about infrastructure go beyond Sydney Metro.

John Menadue recently asked for an open public inquiry into the NSW Metro scheme. Given the momentous questions about that scheme and its supposed evaluation there is no doubt such an inquiry must be Australias highest infrastructure priority.

JOHN AUSTEN. Infrastructure advice - worse than expected.

Previous articles in this blog suggested serious problems in Australias infrastructure assessment and approvals arrangements - upon which tens of billions pivot. The recent Sydney and South-West Metro Rail review by Infrastructure Australia provides troubling evidence of this problem.

JOHN AUSTEN. Infrastructure in Australia- the continuing policy confusion and advisory mess.

Infrastructure Australias reform reports and its updated priority list which assesses particular projects - add to evidence about problems with infrastructure advice. This article deals with the latest reform report - corridor protection - and the resulting depressing high speed rail humbug.

JOHN AUSTEN. Road spending incurs billion dollar new debts annually - nobody notices (Repost from 27 June 2016)

Its traditional that election time in Canberra brings out the road lobbies who ask for all that extra cash which governments raise from fuel excise to be put back into our roads. The problem is that the facts no longer bear this out. Australia is spending more on roads than it collects from fuel excise and vehicle registrations. It is going into more and more debt to build roads.What is worse, it appears that official figures are being fudged to obscure this inconvenient truth from scrutiny lest it get in the way of more promises for more and more...

JOHN AUSTEN. Does Infrastructure Australia understand its ideas for public transport franchising?

A recent report by Infrastructure Australia recommends franchising state public transport services, with Commonwealth incentives for so doing. It claimed that this would realise around $16 bn of financial savings, which could be spent on infrastructure. The report assumed there to be inherent but undisclosed inefficiencies in state government services, without providing evidence of such inefficiencies.

JOHN AUSTEN. Infrastructure misuse and mistakes - the Hume Highway.

The value of infrastructure depends on how well it is used. Australias main infrastructure problem is misuse of what we have; a symptom of an absence of sensible policies, advisory failures and lobbying to build monuments to keep the concrete flowing. This article, about the Hume Highway, is the first in a series on this issue. Misuse of the Hume, Australias most important highway, has damaged the rail and trucking industries, caused harmful traffic in Sydney and led to sub-optimal locations of industry. The solutions highway charging and removal of unnecessary truck restrictions are well known;...

JOHN AUSTEN: The Commonwealth is meddling in NSW rail - at last!

There are indications the Prime Minister wishes to modernise infrastructure policy. Reports regarding rail to Badgerys Creek highlight the discomfort this causes to the NSW Government- and enormous benefits if the Prime Minister gets Commonwealth involvement right.

JOHN AUSTEN. Where to for Commonwealth infrastructure policy?

Legend has it that Charlton Heston flashed a Rolex wristwatch during a chariot race in the 1959 Ben Hur movie. Some recent Prime Ministerial comments could be considered flashes of a policy Rolex in an infrastructure discussion fitted to the setting of Ben Hur in ancient Rome.

JOHN AUSTEN. NSW rail projects - a lot of explaining to do

Yet more questions arise about projects set off by former NSW Transport Minister now Premier Ms Berejiklian. This time about light rail. As for the port privatisations and metro, real answers are yet to come. The sooner a Commonwealth inquiry gets to the bottom of all this the better.

JOHN AUSTEN. The Sydney metro - the doubt and mess continues.

A little more real information about Sydney rail development is coming to light. It is not dispelling the doubts about metro. A decision on Badgerys Creek rail, which would have been straightforward without the metro, is now years off. The extent of metro disruption is becoming evident spreading to even non-metro lines.

JOHN AUSTEN. The Premier and privatisation; selling silverware for transport tupperware?

Commentators on Premier Bairds years focussed on short term matters such as money from privatisations or inconvenience caused by infrastructure building. The most important question, the merit of infrastructure built with sale proceeds, may take years to answer. NSW will be lucky if it ends up with transport infrastructure of lasting value from the sale of the states silverware.

JOHN AUSTEN. Badgerys Creek testing times

The new airport at Badgerys Creek will test national competition and state transport infrastructure policies and may reveal the latter to be gravely flawed. The usual Commonwealth-state funding fight spectacle should be treated as a trivial pantomime and not distract from the serious policy issues that must be addressed and their permanent consequences for many Australians. In any event, rich spoils extracted from the public purse await the airports owners and infrastructure industry players.

JOHN AUSTEN. Roads another year of congestion-causing deficits

We are spending enormous sums on roads and increasing our national debt. Communities are being seriously disrupted and the congestion is increasing. When will we put a stop to this nonsense?

JOHN AUSTEN. Sydney, metro again: $10billion more to build something later?

John Austen suggests that the NSW government's approach to railways is at least back-to-front and probably misconceived.

JOHN AUSTEN. Sydney Metro - a disaster in store.

The public has been given no serious justification for why Sydney needs a separate, distinct and very expensive new rail system like Metro. All we have is a very big bill and more on the horizon. Sydney could spend almost as much on its metro rail as Australia will pay for its new submarines, with little to no scrutiny of whether metro is the right solution and whether it might actually be working to the detriment of the existing commuter rail network and therefore to the detriment of Sydneys economy and people overall.

JOHN AUSTEN. Urban rail projects: property developers should be servants not masters

There is plenty of advice on how to plug the supposed infrastructure gap in Australias big cities. One popular idea is for passenger rail projects to be led and funded by property development. [1] The idea has intuitive appeal. The origins of some railways many years ago was land development. Land use has been put as the sine qua non for major rail projects, recently via agglomeration theory. The idea would be a step towards the holy-grail of integrating the yin of land use and the yang of transport planning. Yet caution is needed. There were reasons why...

JOHN AUSTEN. How port privatisation will hobble Newcastle

Commonwealth action is necessary to undo potential penalties on Newcastle Port. While the infrastructure conversation focusses on major projects like electricity grids it can ignore more significant matters. One such matter in NSW that deserves immediate attention is port privatisations. A deal included in the sales of Botany (2013) and Newcastle (2014) impedes the development of Newcastle Port and city. That deal also effects public confidence in privatisation. The deal, a port commitment, is that the state government would compensate Botany for competition from Newcastle using funds from Newcastle Port. [1] The deal reportedly requires Newcastle...

JOHN AUSTEN. Is there a simple way of dealing with national infrastructure issues? Yes, but it is not a simple matter of adopting Infrastructure Australia's 'project list'.

The argument Recent pieces offered a seemingly simple way forward to deal with national infrastructure issues. It should be simple. All parties should commit to (Infrastructure Australias) project list in part or in full and then stop spending. These projects have been properly assessed and found to be worth doing, and specifically worth doing by the federal government because they have some national significance. [1]   Indeed, governments should limit project spending to proposals that have been properly and publicly assessed. We are entitled to know what is being done in our name and why.

JOHN AUSTEN. The High Court - The Williams case and transport

This article expands on previous comments that the Williams (No. 2) case is reason to reconsider Commonwealth engagement in land transport. [1] The challenge to Government spending programs Williams (No. 2) was the third recent challenge in the High Court to Commonwealth Government spending. Before these three cases it was widely assumed the Government could spend as it sees fit. Governments worked on that assumption using the equivalent of Jack Sparrows compass to guide them; Conservative administrations set course towards rural roads, Labor steered to cities. The three High Court cases should consign the assumption, the compass and...

JOHN AUSTEN. High speed rail - here we go again.

Another proposal involving high speed rail Sydney-Melbourne recently surfaced; from CLARA (Consolidated Land and Rail Australia). Extensive media reports noted an advisory board including former Trade Minister the Hon. Andrew Robb, ex Premiers the Hon. Barry OFarrell and the Hon. Steve Bracks , and former US Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood. A figure of $200billion was mentioned, with a claim it will not rely on government funding. So far the outline is sketchy.There are four website pages and a sub three minute video. The idea seems to be to create a series of new cities in inland NSW and...

JOHN AUSTEN. Road pricing rather than more road funding must be the priority.

Road pricing is a hot topic for policy advisers although less popular with the public and elected representatives. This article attempts a (overly) simple explanation of what, why and whereto of road pricing.

JOHN AUSTEN. Infrastructure summit reported highlights

Is there such a thing as bad or wasteful infrastructure or is it like motherhood, all noble and good?

JOHN AUSTEN. High speed rail where to? Competing with airlines or cars?

This article proposes a change in focus for the high speed rail debate. Rather than seeking to compete with airlines, rail should contribute to settlement that eases pressures on capital cities. This change of focus does not require ego stoking thousand kilometre distances at 350kph plus speeds, but trains for comfortable commuting between second tier cities and capitals. Costs would be lower and demand higher. Newcastle-Sydney is the obvious first candidate.

JOHN AUSTEN and LUKE FRASER. Urbane transport policy. Part 3 of 3

This article is the third in a series about transport. The first two dealt with topics raised by the Prime Minister; mass transit, 30-minute cities etc and noted some challenges for the Commonwealth.[i] Urbane Transport policy. Part 1 of 3 Urbane transport policy. Part 2 of 3 The articles draw on public information - the basis for the community trust necessary for effective democracy. Unfortunately, some information has reduced trust. Restoring that trust begins with the top tier of Australian government - the Commonwealth - and depends on how a future Government approaches land transport.

JOHN AUSTEN and LUKE FRASER. Urbane transport policy. Part 2 of 3.

Urbane transport policy This article is the second in a series about transport infrastructure. Part 1 dealt with the Prime Ministers focus on mass transit and 30-minute cities. This deals with other matters raised by the Prime Minister: value capture, city deals. A final article will deal with the Commonwealths role.[i] Value capture Value capture - levying taxes on properties improved by infrastructure projects - is not novel in Australia; contributions to local infrastructure are made for some developments. But it is relatively new for major transport projects.

John Austen and Luke Fraser. Urbane transport policy. Part 1 of 3.

Prime Minister Turnbull made a splash on urban transport recently. He sketched a vision of 30 minute cities where residents spend on average just one hour a day travelling to regular activities like work and shopping. He also considered mass transit solutions rather than just more motorways. This article is the first of three raising questions about where politics and bureaucracy find themselves in transport and its infrastructure - and where they might head next. In a subsequent post, more on funding and the role of the Commonwealth. For now, the PMs focus on mass transit and 30 minute...

John Austen. Grattan Institute on transport projects: a better mousetrap?

In Road to riches: better transport investment the respected Grattan Institute joined commentators, independent authorities and lobby groups in advancing ideas on transport investment. Like others it proposed publication of assessments for public spending; a better mousetrap to ensnare politically motivated proposals. The report proposed a three stage process for government transport investment: Spending only after publication, by tabling in parliament, of a benefit-cost assessment; Spending on all proposals that pass such an assessment; Independence of spending from Grants Commission processes. There is merit in the ideas. There also are pitfalls. Spending only after publication ...

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